A farmers market sales tracker is a log of each market day, product by product: what you brought, what was left, what sold, the price, and, the line that's easiest to skip, the time you sold out. Kept for a few weeks, it tells you how much of each product to bring to each market, which is the decision that makes or loses money at a stall: too little and you sell out by ten, too much and you carry it home. The sold-out time matters because on a day you sell out, what sold is less than what you could have sold, so an average of sales will always tell you to bring too little of your best sellers. In the example below, four Saturdays and two Wednesdays show the sourdough selling out by 10 am on three Saturdays out of four and the lilikoi butter going home half full every week; the tracker suggests 50 loaves instead of 40, and 11 jars instead of 20. Below is what to record, how to read it, how much to bring, and a free template.
The short version
- Record each product each market day: brought, left, sold, price, and the time it sold out.
- Add the market and the weather; a rainy Saturday isn't a normal one.
- On a sold-out day, sales understate demand; don't plan from the average of those days.
- Bring more of what sells out often, and less of what goes home every week.
- Track each market separately: a Wednesday evening isn't a small Saturday.
- A few weeks of records beats any guess; keep going through the seasons.
- TaroStack treats the stall as a site, so what goes out and comes back is counted, by lot. More below.
What to record
| Column | Why |
|---|---|
| Date and market | Each market behaves differently |
| Product | One row per product |
| Brought and left | Sold = brought − left, counted at the stall |
| Price | Sales = sold × price, and price changes show up |
| Sold out at | The line that tells you demand was higher than sales |
| Weather | So a washed-out day doesn't drag the average down |
Four Saturdays and two Wednesdays
Windward Roots, the made-up taro business I use in these examples, sells at a Saturday morning market from 8 to noon and a Wednesday evening market. Saturdays:
| Product | Brought | Sold, four Saturdays | Sold out | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taro chips | 60 | 52, 60, 48, 60 | 11:40, 12:15 | $6.00 |
| Kūlolo | 30 | 30, 30, 28, 30 | 10:30, 10:50, 11:00 | $8.00 |
| Lilikoi butter | 20 | 9, 12, 7, 10 | Never | $12.00 |
| Taro sourdough | 40 | 40, 40, 38, 40 | 9:45, 10:10, 9:55 | $10.00 |
The Saturday stall took $1,060, $1,144, $976 and $1,120. The averages look fine. The sold-out column says otherwise: the sourdough was gone by 10 on three Saturdays, two hours before the market closed, and the kūlolo by 11. The 38 loaves on the one rainy Saturday, October 3, is the only day the sourdough didn't sell out, and the true demand on the other three days is unknown, only that it was more than 40.
How much to bring next time
| Market | Product | Average brought | Average sold | Days sold out | Suggested to bring |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday | Taro chips | 60 | 55.0 | 2 of 4 | 75 |
| Saturday | Kūlolo | 30 | 29.5 | 3 of 4 | 38 |
| Saturday | Lilikoi butter | 20 | 9.5 | 0 of 4 | 11 |
| Saturday | Taro sourdough | 40 | 39.5 | 3 of 4 | 50 |
| Wednesday | Taro chips | 30 | 20.0 | 0 of 2 | 23 |
| Wednesday | Kūlolo | 15 | 13.0 | 1 of 2 | 19 |
| Wednesday | Lilikoi butter | 10 | 3.5 | 0 of 2 | 5 |
| Wednesday | Taro sourdough | 20 | 18.5 | 1 of 2 | 25 |
The rule in the template: a product that sold out on at least half its days gets 25% more than you've been bringing, because its sales are capped by what was on the table; everything else gets its average sale plus 15%. Ten more loaves of sourdough on a Saturday is up to $100 more, and nine fewer jars of lilikoi butter is nine fewer jars to load, unload and carry home. Try the new numbers for a few weeks, and let the tracker adjust them. How to plan the quantities for a market you haven't done yet is in how much inventory for a craft fair, and what a stall costs and leaves you is in cost to sell at a farmers market.
Reading it over a season
After a few months, the tracker shows what no single Saturday can: which products sell more as the weather warms, which market buys which product, and what a rainy day really costs. Watch for products that sell out at the same time every week, which is a sign to bring more or raise the price, and products that go home every week, which may need a smaller size, a lower price, or a different market. The lilikoi butter's 9.5 jars a Saturday against 3.5 on a Wednesday says it belongs on Saturdays. How to plan stock around the seasons themselves is in seasonal inventory.
Get the template
Download the farmers market sales tracker. Log each product each market day, with what you brought, what was left, the price and the time you sold out; the summary shows each market and product's averages, the days you sold out, and how many to bring next time. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The tracker is filled in on Saturday afternoon, from a count taken while packing up and a card reader's report. It doesn't know that the van left the kitchen with 40 loaves but only 38 made it to the table, that six jars came back with a cracked lid, or that the kūlolo on the table came from two lots with different dates. And the stock back in the kitchen still shows the 40 loaves, because nobody took them off.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack treats the market stall as a place stock goes, so what leaves the kitchen and what comes back are both counted.
The stall is a site. A market stall is a site of its own, like the kitchen. Loading the van is a transfer from the kitchen to the stall, with stock shown in transit, and what comes back is a transfer home, so the kitchen's stock is right on Saturday afternoon. Counting at the stall works on a phone with no signal and sends itself later.
Every lot, at the table. Stock goes out first-expired-first-out, so the kūlolo on the table is the oldest lot, and every lot keeps its dates. Damaged jars come off as adjustments with their reason, so losses are reported by reason, item and site, the stall included.
And what sells, by product. Connect your Shopify store or Square, and we set it up with you. Margins are reported by product and by customer, so the lilikoi butter's place in the van is a decision made on numbers.
| The question | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What went to the market? | Remembered | A transfer to the stall site |
| What came back? | Counted, maybe | A transfer home, so kitchen stock is right |
| Which lot was on the table? | Unknown | First-expired-first-out, by lot |
| Counting at the stall | A clipboard | A phone, with no signal |
Counting, lots and margins are on every plan, from $49 a month; a second site, like the market stall, with transfers between them, is on Standard at $99. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.